Page:Six Old English Chronicles.djvu/132

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108
GEOFFREY'S BRITISH HISTORY.
[BOOK I.

the top of a high rock, hurled down the savage monster into the sea; where falling on the sides of craggy rocks, he was torn to pieces, and coloured the waves with his blood. The place where he fell, taking its name from the giant's fall, is called Lam Goëmagot, that is, Goëmagot's Leap, to this day.[1]

Chap. XVII.—The building of new Troy by Brutus, upon the river Thames.

Brutus, having thus at last set eyes upon his kingdom, formed a design of building a city, and, with this view, traveled through the land to find out a convenient situation, and coming to the river Thames, he walked along the shore, and at last pitched upon a place very fit for his purpose. Here, therefore, he built a city, which he called New Troy; under which name it continued a long time after, till at last, by the corruption of the original word, at came to be called Trinovantum. But afterwards when Lud, the brother of Cassibellaun, who made war against Julius Caesar, obtained the government of the kingdom, he surrounded it with stately walls, and towers of admirable workmanship, and ordered it to be called after his name, Kaer-Lud, that is, the City of Lud.[2] But this very thing became afterward the occasion of a great quarrel between him and his brother Nennius, who took offence at his abolishing the name of Troy in this country. Of this quarrel Gildas the historian has given a full account; for which reason I pass it over, for fear of debasing by my account of it, what so great a writer has so eloquently related.

Chap. XVIII.—New Troy being built, and laws made for the government of it, it is given to the citizens that were to inhabit it.

After Brutus had finished the building of the city, he made choice of the citizens that were to inhabit it, and prescribed them laws for their peaceable government. At this time

  1. It is now called the Haw, and is near Plymouth.
  2. This is the city now called London, and it is evident that the writer wishes it to be supposed that the modern name is derived from the ancient, as if it were Lud-ton or Lud-don. The first notice of London found in authentic history occurs in Tacitus, Annal. lib. xiv. c. 33, the second notice in Ptolemy, A.D. 120, lib. i. 15.